Zed's Diary
Follow our new 3rd Team skipper on his journey onwards and upwards. From humble beginnings with the A Team, Zed has now assumed charge of the 3rds. With the 2nd team captaincy next in his sights Zed continues his journey to the top.

Haslingdon 253-6 Accrington 208-8

Haslingdon came down to visit us on a warm day.... they came out the changing rooms to do their warm up exercises. The team looked pretty serious, focused, professional and determined as they nonchalantly walked past half my team who were sitting on the bench having a cigarette, putting their legs up on the bench, and putting the sun factor 8 on, 15 minutes before the match....better to conserve the energy!

They won the toss and decided to bat straight away and in next to no time they were 93 for no wicket off 18 overs as I veinly tried 4 bowlers to break up their opening partnership, this was managed just about as I tried myself as a last resort .....they lost another 3 quick wickets but still kept their composure and momentum. The innings reached the dizzy heights of 253-6 as none of our bowlers seemed to trouble their batsmen....I had figures of 3-50, followed by Ian Johnson 1-27 and Sir-gay-wat 1-45 but these were small pickings. Three of their batsmen and extras all totalled over 40!

Our innings started off on a decent note and by the end of the 18th over we were 72-2, however 3 quick wickets and some tight bowling managed to reduce us to 85-6 off 25 overs. Myself and Paul managed to hold the innings together as we looked close to capitulation and took the score to 130 before Paul holed out to long on for 27 and it was there I knew that any slim chances of victory ended. I decided to enjoy myself and played some shots that I think I picked up on my visits to the Orient as many in the ground had never seen such shots played in cricket. [HEY ZED WE COULD HAVE THE MAKINGS OF ANOTHER SERIES HERE - ED! ] A heave here, a pull there and a 360 degree axe chop thrown in for free and before I new it I was 85 not out and our innings ended on 207-8 with some fine support from James Ormerod who was unbeaten on 16. Waqas played a good opening knock of 33 and is looking better with each match.

The only area of concern that seems to show up consistently is our fielding and the extras column as we have managed to give away nearly a 100 extras in only three games. But it turned out to be a decent match in the end after Haslingdon dominated the first three quarters of it.